(sizzling)
- I'm sitting right here in the steam of the pork,
and this fire is so incredibly hot.
They're making fresh salsa.
You can smell the habanero as they crush them,
and the roasted tomatoes.
And then they have this giant griddle
with a huge bonfire where they're cooking the tortillas.
Oh, this is a great place.
I can not wait to try this salsa.
(upbeat music)
Good morning.
I hope you're having an amazing day, It's Mark Wiens.
I'm in Playa del Carmen in Quintana Roo, state of Mexico.
It's gonna be a road trip today.
We are starting off in Playa del Carmen,
and we're gonna drive all the way to Merida,
which is the capital of Yucatan Province
on the Yucatan Peninsula.
But along the way, we're gonna stop to eat
some amazing Mexican food.
We're gonna visit some of the famous attractions.
I'm gonna share it all with you in this video.
I'm the first one up this morning.
Just loading up the minivan,
and hopefully we should all be ready in about 30 minutes,
and we're on our way.
But first things first, we have to stop for breakfast.
We're on our way for some breakfast nourishment.
This is the spot right over here.
It's kind of in the industrial area of Playa del Carmen.
There's some factories around.
There's some car dealerships.
We're right next to the highway.
And yeah, this place looks awesome.
(upbeat music)
(speaking in foreign language)
- This is a very cool place.
It's setup underneath a tent.
They have a number of different tacos that you can order,
but they specialize in cecino,
which is like a very thin beef,
and so she cuts off a chunk and she weighs it
to get everything right and then they grill it.
They have a list of tacos.
I tried four different types of tacos on a plate,
and it smells incredible.
Yeah, it smells so good.
(speaking in foreign language)
- What I love about this place already
is that everything looks fresh.
They are making everything there.
They're making their tortillas.
They're making the salsas.
They're assembling, they're grilling that meat over fire.
They're assembling everything.
The beef aromas in this tent.
If only you could smell the beef aromas in this tent.
(speaking in foreign language)
- Wow, these tacos are incredible.
This place is a meat lover's taco dream come true.
It's just all meat and lots of chicharron, fried skin,
all those onions on there.
And then, so they assemble.
I got one of each, though, so they're all different.
But they're all beef based, I think.
Oh, except for one.
One is only chicharron with a big
hunk of guacamole on the bottom.
And then a ton of sauteed onions.
And they also top them with nopales,
which is the prickly pear cactus.
And then he also added on some salsa already.
There's nothing better than when your taco
overflows off of the plate and touches the table.
Look at that piece of meat.
Oh, this is the biggest piece of meat
I've ever seen in a taco.
Wow.
Oh that's awesome.
Oh that is crazy good.
That beef is extremely tender and really salty.
And then you've got those sweet, tender onions.
You've got, oh the nopal in there,
which just kind of has a neutral taste.
I think it's about all those onions and that beef.
There's nothing like morning taco nourishment.
Tacos are so good as they are,
but I just have to try a little bit more salsa.
Maybe something a little bit more spicy.
Oh, and I wanna try some of the salsa that she freshly made.
The next one I'm gonna try is all,
he put on a couple huge pieces of chicharron,
which is just crispy skin,
and then he added on a huge dollop of guacamole,
and then the onions again.
Yeah, this is a very interesting taco.
I've never had a combination like this before.
This is all squeezing out the top.
Whoa, that's just solid guacamole,
and then you get that crunch from the skin.
Oh, that one is a winner as well.
It has quite a meaty taste, too.
Next up is the one with omelet
And again, it has beef mixed within the omelet.
He fried it on that same griddle,
so it has all the beef juices.
Check out just how overstuffed this taco is.
What a beautiful thing.
Absolutely gorgeous.
The cactus, the nopales.
It's really good.
It almost has like a mushroom texture to it.
A little bit slimy.
And those onions, superb.
I might squeeze on a little bit of lime on this one.
Okay, onto the final taco.
And this is the same beef,
but it's been cut up into small little pieces,
and then he added a handful of kind of,
I think it's chicharron,
but it's been kind of cracked already.
So they're in small pieces as well.
Again, onions and nopales and some salsas.
What I love is that they're all totally different.
This is not a light breakfast.
Carlos, how were those tacos?
- The tacos were good.
Very cocecina tacos.
- Those were some serious tacos.
They were so good.
And next up, we're gonna drive over to a cenote.
(upbeat music)
We have arrived to a cenote that's called X'canche,
Cenote X'canche, and it's a little bit off the beaten path,
but there's so many cenotes that you can choose from
that eventually you just gotta choose one.
And we wanted to go to one that was quieter,
that was a little more off the beaten path,
since we have the minivan.
And it's also still in kind of on the route
that we're taking today towards Merida.
So yeah, here we are.
(speaking in foreign language)
- It's about a two kilometer walk down the road,
down the path here.
So you can either rent a bicycle,
or you can walk, or you can rent a tricycle and get there.
So we thought it would be fun to take the tricycle.
Okay, entrance to the cenote is 50,
and then the tricycle taxi rental is 100 per person.
It's a little harder to bike with all the kids,
so this will be fun.
Oh, and by the way, you can get some
ice cream to enjoy on the road.
Okay, and we're off.
Whoa.
Oh yeah, this bicycle rickshaw, this is so relaxing.
Going down the tree-lined path.
Oh, it's breezy.
This is actually really fun.
We're cruising, too.
(upbeat music)
Oh.
- That was nice, huh?
- [Mark] Yeah, so relaxing.
- That's a nice road.
- I'm loving this place already.
We gotta change, and then they said
we need to take a shower before we go to the cenote
to keep it nice and fresh and clean.
Okay, I'm gonna get changed.
Okay, fully changed.
I'm ready for the cenote.
Had to take a quick shower.
Wow, that water is cold.
(chattering)
It's absolutely gorgeous.
A sinkhole in the rock.
The water is clear, it's deep blue.
It's extremely deep as well.
There's vines going down.
It's the jungle canopy.
And part of the reason it's so beautiful also
is that it's so quiet, it's so peaceful here.
You can hear the birds.
(birds chirping)
Yeah, you wouldn't really wanna slip and fall here,
but if you did, you would land in the water, luckily.
(water splashing)
(hollering)
Oh that's beautiful.
What?
It's not that cold.
It's perfect.
Oh wow, it's so incredibly beautiful,
especially when you're swimming and then you look up
and you see the trees and the opening.
It's gorgeous.
Back into the rickshaw.
Okay, listo, we're ready to go.
The cenote was so much fun.
Swimming, and then just the natural beauty,
and also partly why this particular cenote is so nice
is because it's so quiet, so peaceful.
When we were swimming,
there were only other couple in there.
The serenity, the peace, the calmness, the natural beauty.
This is a gorgeous cenote to visit.
(upbeat music)
We're just stopping by in this little town.
It's called Pimcoko, and this little town is full of meat,
so we're just stopping for a quick snack.
This is actually not where we're actually having real lunch.
(speaking in foreign language)
- So the sausage was gonna take a little too long to cook
so we decided to get some of their,
what did they say, it's fried and smoked?
- Fried and spicy smoked pork.
- Fried, spicy, smoked.
Okay, every kind of delicious flavor on pork
you can imagine, and there was a big stack of it.
This little town, it's just a little tiny town,
but there's like 10 meat shops in this place.
(laughing)
We just got a whole steak.
Look at this thing.
Carlos, you get half, I get half.
(laughing)
How's that?
- Good, good.
Salty, very salty.
Tastes very good, very salty.
- Oh wow.
Oh, that is incredible.
Extremely salty, but really smoky.
It's like dry from being smoked for so long,
but not like, it's still moist.
That is incredibly salty delicious.
Yeah it does almost have like a ham bacon flavor to it.
It's tender, too.
Wow.
That is like ham, but like a crazy good salty ham.
It's like overly salty.
(upbeat music)
We're getting closer and closer to Chichen Itza,
but along the road, we stopped in this little town.
It's called Kaua.
And along the road, you'll see so many restaurants
called La Tia, which is the auntie.
Serving a dish, it's called Poc chuc,
which is a grilled pork dish.
They call it La Verdadera Tia.
So it's the true one, the original one.
Oh cool.
(speaking in foreign language)
This is just a family home restaurant,
so they've invited us back to the kitchen
to see the cooking.
Oh, cool.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Mark] From the garden here.
(speaking in foreign language)
- This kitchen is amazing.
It's all family run.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Mark] The beans are right from their garden.
(speaking in foreign language)
- And she is the original auntie here at the restaurant.
This is the place to come.
And it's such a cool kitchen.
They're peeling the beans over here.
And they're cooking over on this side.
They're making fresh salsa.
You can smell the habanero as they crush them
in the roasted tomatoes.
And then they have this giant griddle
with a huge bonfire, where they're cooking the tortillas.
Oh, this is a great place.
(speaking in foreign language)
(roosters crowing)
(people chattering)
(speaking in foreign language)
(meat sizzling)
(laughing)
I'm sitting right here in the steam of the pork,
and this fire is so incredibly hot.
Wow, I can feel that heat coming through my face.
It's so hot.
That pork smells unbelievably good.
They're just grilling it over this giant griddle,
along with the tortillas.
And she added on some lard to that pork
to make it extra good.
Oh, I can't wait.
This is gonna be so good.
Oh, some more lard.
Oh yes.
(sizzling)
Okay.
God, that fire is so hot.
(speaking in foreign language)
- We also ordered some longanisa,
which is a sausage, and she's showing me how
she makes it right now.
They just throw it onto the coals,
and that must be some fatty sausage.
You can see the flames just erupting off of those sausages.
Oh, that's beautiful.
Wow, I am sweating back here in this kitchen.
The fires are so hot.
And they throw everything in.
The tomatoes were thrown into the fire
so that they roast for that salsa.
You can just hear that sausage just hissing with that pack.
(people chattering)
(rooster crowing)
(upbeat music)
(speaking in foreign language)
- Okay, we got all the food,
and it looks incredible.
And the family that makes this food is just awesome.
They're so friendly, they're so nice.
We got all the grilled pork.
I think it's called Poc chuc, poc chuc, that's what it is.
And the tortillas are all hand made.
Everything is hand made, even the salsa.
They gave us the whole mortar.
Those fire roasted tomatoes are in there,
then he pounded in some habanero,
and there's some tortillas.
One is basted in lard and salt,
and then one is plain.
We also got some longanisa, which is some sausage.
And she said the longanisa is actually
from that town where we got that meat.
So we were planning to try some sausage there,
but then it would take too long.
So we're actually getting some sausage
from there that they made.
Fire roasted.
But yeah, the main thing to eat here is what we got,
and it looks stunning.
But we're starting first with a bowl of beans,
which auntie was peeling those beans,
and then they were just boiling over the fire as well.
Yeah, those are good.
Oh, and they're right from the family's garden.
Just like pure beans.
Yeah, they're really good.
They're really like, smoothy, silky,
creamy texture to them.
You can actually see your reflection in this bowl of beans.
Good beans.
Let's move onto the pork now.
Okay so we each got a plate of our own pork,
and yeah, it's very thin pork.
They grill it over that griddle.
It just radiates heat.
It's so hot.
And then she continually drizzles it in lard
as it keeps sizzling away,
and sprinkles on quite a generous amount of salt.
Let me just taste the pork first.
Wow.
Yeah, that's salty.
It's really rich.
It has like a natural pork flavor to it.
That's what makes it good.
Yeah, that tastes like country pig, that's for sure.
These are the ones.
You can see how glistening they are
because she sprinkled a bunch of lard on them as well.
Gotta taste this one.
It looks a little oily, though.
Okay, let me grab that piece of pork,
stick that pork in, and I gotta try that salsa this time.
I can not wait to try this salsa.
(people chattering)
Wow.
It's so salty, it's so porky.
The tortillas are awesome.
That salsa is, we asked him to make it spicy.
He did make it pretty spicy.
You can taste the habanero in there,
and then just those fire roasted tomatoes,
which are just lightly crushed in there.
They're still chunky, chunky delicious.
You know, I like the tortilla with the lard
that does make it even richer,
but it's sort of like unnecessary
because you taste the whole richness of the pork.
I think I like just the regular tortilla the best.
Let me add in a whole piece of pork, kind of break it up.
Squeeze on some lime.
And then I think I'm gonna get some onions on here,
and some cilantro as well.
This salsa is absolutely insane.
It's so good.
Oh man, it's so juicy.
It's dripping out the back.
(upbeat music)
That is ridiculously tasty.
The whole combination.
Okay next up for the longanisa,
which is the sausage.
Fire literally coal roasted.
You know, you can see the burnt ends,
and then on this side, that's the interiors of
that longanisa.
So it has a little bit of a sour taste to it.
You can taste the charred ends of that, that's for sure.
A little bit spicy.
Yeah, that's some good stuff.
That could get really addictive.
(upbeat music)
Yeah, I really love the onion,
cilantro, and salsa combination.
Squeeze on a little lime.
That is delicious.
That salsa is just awesomely good.
Oh, I love it.
Wow.
(speaking in foreign language)
Whoa, where'd it go?
Okay.
- One more shot, let's do it again.
- [Mark] One more time.
(laughing)
(speaking in foreign language)
- We are rolling out of La Tia.
There's really not a whole lot going on in this town.
It's pretty sleepy.
I mean, there's a fair amount of traffic,
but it's a very sleepy town.
But man, they have some awesome food.
They're really friendly.
I loved watching them cook.
They make Poc chuc very, very well.
Or is it, chuc poc?
Chuc poc or Poc chuc?
I think it's Poc chuc.
Oh man, that's tasty.
I have like, my mouth is just kind of tingling
with saltiness right now, but that was so incredibly good.
Total bill came to 300 for four of us eating,
and I got the official napkin receipt.
(upbeat music)
Next stop, Chichen Itza.
We have arrived to Chichen Itza.
That was just about a 10 minute drive from lunch,
but it's the middle of the afternoon now.
We're hoping that it won't be quite as busy
as it might be in the morning,
but I'm sure it will still be packed.
Yeah, there's about 50 tour buses parked here still.
Entrance was very easy.
It cost 242 pesos per person.
And we're just now passing through
all sorts of souvenir shops.
And on our way to the complex, the Mayan city complex.
(people chattering)
Wow, it's a really short walk,
and then you get out of the trees,
and all of a sudden, it opens up and you see.
You have an amazing view of what's called El Castillo,
which is the castle.
It is the central step pyramid,
the main landmark of Chichen Itza.
This entire Mayan city complex.
And this entire complex, it dates back.
It was thriving between 600 and 1200.
And it was very powerful.
They were very advanced for their day,
and the architecture.
They're known for their architecture, for their pyramids.
It's in incredible condition.
Mika, Mika.
(speaking in foreign language)
- You can see the giant steps that form the pyramid,
and then the steps that are going up.
Hey, it's pretty awesome, very awesome.
Chichen Itza, at its time, it was one of the most powerful,
one of the most influential,
and also one of the largest and most diverse of
all the Mayan cities, and that's why it is
so well preserved now.
Because they built so well,
and they had such amazing construction.
Actually, what I love to do when I visit
ancient sites like this, is just imagine how it was
living without the technology that we have today,
and just living amongst these,
the nature plus these amazing buildings,
construction that they built.
All which serve various purposes in their culture,
and Mayans had a lot of interesting traditions as well.
And yeah, very cool to visit.
(man yelling)
(giggling)
- Come on, Mika.
Come on, buddy.
Come on.
Good job.
We're gonna always remember Chichen Itza
because little Mika, he's taken a couple steps before,
but nothing like that.
He really started, he got really worked up walking,
using the stroller as a walker.
And then he just decided to go straight up
and start running.
Chichen Itza was amazing.
We're now back on the road,
and we are driving to Merida,
and it should be about an hour until we get there.
(upbeat music)
So we've made it to Merida after an amazing day.
We're staying in this very cool, old house
in the central district of Merida.
And yeah, today was a fantastic day,
starting all the way from breakfast,
driving all the way from Playa del Carmen.
Stopping at the cenote was incredible.
The food was awesome.
And finally, Chichen Itza,
and we're pretty tired this evening.
It's been a very long day,
so we just got some takeaway food for dinner.
So I'm gonna end this video, this day trip,
day road trip right now.
Huge thank you for watching this video.
Please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it.
And I'd love to hear from you in the comments section below,
and if you're not already subscribed, click subscribe now.
I'm gonna be publishing lots more food and travel videos,
and also click the little bell icon
so that you get notified of my next video.
Thanks again for watching,
and I'll see you on the next video.
No comments:
Post a Comment